John Taylor

“ Let us cleave to our religion and humble ourselves before God, pray to him, keep his commandments, and be virtuous and pure and holy! Remember your prayers; be true and faithful to each other and to your covenants, keep the commandments of the Almighty, and the blessings of Israel's God will rest upon you, and no power this side of hell or the other side either shall harm you. It is our duty to serve God ”

“ I am glad there is a little spirit among our sisters, and that they dare say their souls are their own. I don't like to see people sneaking about with their heads down, and fretting about every little wind that blows. It will be all right with us, never fear. We will live so far above them that they can't touch us; and their infamies will be so plain that they will be proclaimed on the housetops, and everybody will be ashamed of them as we are to-day. May God help us to do right and to be faithful in keeping his commandments, in the name of Jesus, Amen. ”

“ No good man will seek to oppress the good, the pure, the virtuous, nor lend himself as a tool for that purpose. We are seeking for those things that tend to exalt, ennoble and purify the human family. We say to others, get out of our way; let us alone. Hug your creeds! hug your tyranny! hug your corruptions and lies to your bosoms, but let us alone. That is all we ask and mean to have it, for the right and the might, and virtue and truth will prevail ”

“ It is the violation of the natural rights of man that has deluged the earth with blood in all ages. These principles were enunciated also by Joseph Smith, he believed in them, so do we, in the right to think, in the right to speak, in the right to act, in the right to do all things that are right and good and proper, but not in the right to interfere with any other man's rights, any other man's religion, any other man's principles. These are our views. God has planted them in our bosom, they will remain there eternally, for they are principles that dwell in the bosom of God. ”

“ I don't believe in the God of the religions of this world, nor in their heaven, nor in anything pertaining to it. I don't want to go to a heaven "beyond the bounds of time and space." I don't want to worship a God "without body, parts or passions." ”

“ We are not trained, or brought up, or educated, or informed by any intelligence that they have; the religion that we have we received "not of man, neither by man, but by the revelations of the Lord Jesus Christ." This is the position that we occupy to-day in regard to our religious feelings, and if this is a fiction, then our religion is a fiction altogether, for we have none. We claim no affinity, no relationship, no association with any sect, any party, any religionists that exist on the face of the wide earth ”

“ They may break their covenants with God and their wives, and forsake them. We are not afraid of these things, we have learned a lesson, not in their school. We can't forsake those whom God has given to us, but we will cleave to them for ever and for ever, worlds without end. That is our view; that is mine. I have no covenants to violate, nobody to forsake. This people's God is my God, their religion is my religion, where they go I hope to be found, where they live I wish to live, where they die I want to be buried. ”

“ Do any men come among us with religions that we consider false? All right, let them worship as they please. Let them rant and roar and pray and halloo to their God, who seems to be deaf and can't hear them, and let them take what course they please but let us alone. We will let them alone. They may halloo until they crack their throats, it will make no difference to us. ”

“ We certainly are not indebted for these principles to those who come among us here, but God has implanted them in our bosoms, and they will grow there and take root and spread and prevail, and the worst wish we have to the human family is that the principles enunciated in our Constitution may reverberate over the wide earth, and spread from shore to shore until all mankind shall be free. ”

“ We are indebted to God for the blessings we enjoy, and this nation, whether they know it or not, are indebted to the same source for all those pure, patriotic, liberal, exalted notions that the wise, enlightened and honest statesmen, inducted into our government years ago, and which those who are not disfranchised among us, experience to-day. ”

“ We have neither adopted the opinions of Socrates, Mahommed, Paine, Luther, or the Hindoos; nor are we indebted to Roman Catholicism, the Greek Church, Episcopalianism, or to Knox, Calvin, Whitfield, Wesley, Campbell, Miller, or any other sects, our religion in its entirety came from God, and we give to him, and not to any man or any set of men, the glory. ”

“ The elders of this church, whom I see around me, have wandered over this wide world, trusting in the Almighty for their support, and he has been with 'them, and they don't need to cringe and bow, and lie, and misrepresent to get somebody to give them a little money to help them on with their religion.
We believe in the great truths which God has revealed for the salvation of the human family; we are engaged in building up and establishing the Kingdom of God on the earth. ”

“ I would rather be the man that was robbed than the robber; I would rather be stolen from than be the thief; I would rather be the oppressed than the oppressor; I would rather suffer wrong than do wrong. ”

“ We realize that God is near to us, that we are acting under his guidance and direction, that we are his children and require his aid, and that while we seek unto him for guidance and direction we shall always have his Holy Spirit to lead us in the paths of truth. ”

“ If others want to play the part of tyrants let them do so and they will find the tyrant's end. It is for us to keep the commandments of God, and in doing that we need not break the laws of the land. Why, bless your souls, we can live anything that anybody else can! ”

“ We care nothing about their opinions and dogmas, we have left their follies and nonsense and cant and hypocrisy years ago, we want nothing to do with it. If they want, it they can take it, they can hug it to themselves as a sweet morsel, and take their own course, but let us alone. ”

“ We are in the hands of God, and our enemies are in the hands of God, we are all in the hands of the Almighty, and he will sustain the right, and Israel shall be victorious, therefore you need not trouble about what this man or the other man, or this combination or the other combination can do, they can do nothing but what God will let them ”

“ The Lord has given us a work to do, and by his help we shall do it. He has placed the Gospel of life and salvation in our hands, and we have carried it from the rivers to the end of the earth without begging all over the world for a little help and charity. We can go trusting in God. ”

“ We, as a people, believe emphatically in the sustaining hand of the Almighty, and in our speaking and in our hearing in the assemblies of the Saints we always feel that it is a matter of the greatest importance to us. ”

“ In this respect as well as many others we differ from the people of the generation in which we live. We came out from among them years ago, because we believed in certain revelations that God had made to the human family; and believing in these principles we have assembled ourselves together as we are found, in these valleys of the mountains, in the Territory of Utah. We have come here, ostensibly and in reality, not to do our own will, but the will of our heavenly Father ”

“ Governed by the principles of right, and un-influenced by party power or wealth there have always been men inspired by an infallible divine afflatus, who have recognized an innate, inalienable principle of justice and equity, in every age and among all nations, and the records of the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, Romans and more modern nations bear ample testimony to this fact. ”

“ We profess to be governed by a higher law, let us move in a higher atmosphere; and let these miserable dogs take their course, pursue their own path and do as they please. We can submit to anything that they can. ”

“ We have engaged in nothing but what we have been directed by the Almighty in, except some of us who have got aside into transgression. We are married to our wives and don't want any other associations. ”

“ These are the things that we are struggling for, these are the things for which we stand condemned at the present day, by the would-be republicans and democracy of this corrupt generation with which we are associated. ”

“ Watch everybody in all their operations. Be quick, lively and energetic, but you need not fear. We want no vigilant societies here, nor bloodtubs, nor "Pluguglies," nor Ku-Klux, nor John Brown raids, nor Jayhawkers, as they frequently have down east and west and south. ”

“ They can take their pity and everything else they have got and stuff themselves with it, and I hope that our sisters here, both young and aged, have enough respect for themselves to keep out of the company and society of such corrupt wretches. ”

“ Don't be troubled, you need not be hurt. We do not propose to leave here;they are not able to rob us of all. They may do a little stealing. They have laid out great plans, but they will accomplish very little. We can stand it if they can. ”